Decomposing the grid

The American landscape chronicles the dreams of an agricultural nation through a series of regular lines en-scribed on a flat plane. Each 6 mile x 6 mile square frames a lose-lose situation in which government subsidies encourage intensive monocultural production resulting in loss of topsoil, biodiversity and population while contaminating the ground with chemicals and glutting global commodity markets. Current "advances" in agricultural research demonstrate that age-old technologies - small scale rotational systems - properly managed, can multiply productivity while rehabilitating soils, retaining moisture and reducing or eliminating chemical applications. At a fragile moment in history when only 2% of the population produces the agriculture which supports the other 98%, this thesis proposes an alternative to the current agro-political landscape in which rational lines no longer suffice to measure a rotational landscape.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Wilkins, Ophelia (Ophelia Jane)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Arindam Dutta and Paul Schlapobersky.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/38602

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/38602